What Is A Forage Only Diet For Horses?

A forage-based diet for horses is a feeding strategy where grass-based products make up most or all of your horse’s calories. This might include pasture, hay, or cubed/pelleted hay. In contrast, little or no formulated “horse feed” grain products are fed.

What is the best forage for horses?

Alfalfa or mixed forages are ideal forage options for hard keeper horses, e.g. straight alfalfa, alfalfa/timothy grass or alfalfa/oat grass. Although not a hay, but a great fiber source, beet pulp is higher in calories and can also be a helpful addition to hard keeper horse diets.

What does forage do to horses?

Forage contains all of the essential nutrients required by horses: water, energy, protein, vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, many horse owners only talk about, or judge forage based on protein content. While protein is certainly important, other nutrients are often as important.

What percentage of a horse’s diet should be forage?

1 percent
The horse should always be fed a minimum of 1 percent of its body weight in forage (on a dry matter basis); the ideal is 1.5 to 2 percent of its body weight. Feeding less roughage than this can lead to health issues such as colic and ulcers.

What to feed horses when there is no hay?

Six Hay Alternatives for Horses

• Bagged chopped forage. It can replace all of your horse’s hay, if necessary.
• Hay cubes. Chopped cubed hay (usually alfalfa or timothy or a combination) is another 100-percent replacement.
• Hay pellets.
• “Complete” feed.
• Beet pulp.
• Soybean hulls.

How much forage does a horse need a day?

Healthy mature horses should consume between 1.5 and 2% of their body weight per day in forage (hay, haylage, hay cubes), pasture, or a combination thereof.

Can a horse live on hay alone?

Many pleasure and trail horses don’t need grain: good-quality hay or pasture is sufficient. If hay isn’t enough, grain can be added, but the bulk of a horse’s calories should always come from roughage. Horses are meant to eat roughage, and their digestive system is designed to use the nutrition in grassy stalks.

What are the disadvantages of forage?

The main disadvantages of forage legumes are generally (i) lower persistence than grass under grazing, (ii) high risk of livestock bloat and (iii) difficulty to conserve as silage or hay.

Does beet pulp count as forage?

In summary, beet pulp is a good dietary supplement for “hard keepers”, as a forage or fiber replacement for poor quality hay, and for older horses with problems chewing or digesting hay. The digestible energy content of beet pulp is greater than hay and less than grain.

What is the difference between feed and forage?

Fodder is feed that is harvested and taken to the animal, forage is browsed on by the animal while still on the land. For most NZ farms, forage is pasture or some other mono crop (such as chicory or brassica, etc.)

What is the 20% rule horses?

The researchers found that an average adult light riding horse could comfortably carry about 20 percent of their ideal bodyweight. This result agrees with the value recommended by the Certified Horsemanship Association and the U.S. Cavalry Manuals of Horse Management published in 1920.

What is the best diet for horses?

Horses are naturally grazers, they eat little and often. Their natural diet is mainly grass, which has high roughage content. Horses should be provided with a predominantly fibre-based diet, either grass, hay, haylage or a hay replacement in order to mimic their natural feeding pattern as closely as possible.

How many hours can a horse go without forage?

Ideally, horses should go no longer than 4 hours between forage meals and be fed on a consistent schedule. However, it’s hard to predict when, or if, an extended time period without forage will cause health issues like colic and ulcers.

What can replace hay?

10 Forage Alternatives to Hay in a Drought Year

• Beet Pulp. Beet pulp is an alternative that makes sense if the price is right.
• Almond Hulls. Almond hulls are another feed that can replace forage and will also provide good NDF digestibility.
• Cottonseed.
• Bran.
• Wet Feeds.
• Grain Hays/Silage.
• Wheat Straw/Barley Straw.

What is a substitute for grain for horses?

Limit or eliminate grain when possible, and offer an alternative hi-calorie food source as a grain substitute, such as any of the following: Fat is a safe and concentrated energy source and is well digested by horses. Fat can be fed as vegetable oil, rice bran or is available in commercially formulated high-fat feed.

Should horses have hay all time?

Because we like to think our horses follow the same schedule that we do, many people think that horses need less hay at night because they’re asleep (and therefore, not eating). However, that’s a myth. Horses need access to forage at all times of the day.

What is hay belly in horses?

What is Hay Belly? Hay belly is the term for a distended gut in a horse resulting from being fed a poor quality or low protein feed without a grain supplement. This leads to the abdomen of the horse being distended due to an increase in the volume of feed and a decrease in muscle as a result of low protein intake.

Is grass better for horses than hay?

And sure — it’d be nice to have access to green pastures year-round, but feeding your horse hay is nearly as good (and sometimes better) than feeding grass. It’s convenient to feed, helps your horse maintain a healthier digestive system, and can help keep him happy and occupied if he does have to be stall-bound.

Why do horses not need protein?

Adult horses need protein only for repair and maintenance of body tissues, so their total requirement is fairly low. Many mature horses get all the protein they need (about 10% of the diet, on average) from grass or hay. Owners can confirm that this need is met by having pastures and hay analyzed.

What are the three categories of forage?

TYPES OF FORAGES
Forage types vary depending on the needs of animals and the wants of producers. The four forage types are pasture, hay, silage, and haylage.

What is the advantage of forage?

Forages can give repeated harvests each year, give nitrogen back to the soil, prevent erosion, filter water and clean the air, absorb impurities, and be used for medicines and biofuels. Scientists have found new ways to integrate forages into other businesses.